2016 Hype Cycles Highlight Digital Business Ecosystems

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New digital business models require ecosystems of people, businesses and technologies that must scale beyond the enterprise. Emerging technologies enable organizations to operate their business ecosystems by increasing the interconnection of people and things; allowing vast quantities of data to be exchanged almost in real time; and increase intelligence and allowing complex analysis and decision making in real time. This year, Gartner’s Hype Cycles Special Report reflect the technologies, services and disciplines that support this connectedness.

Hype Cycles Research

Our 2016 Hype Cycle reveals three distinct technology trends that profoundly create new experiences, with unrivaled intelligence, and offer platforms that propel organizations to connect with new business ecosystems in order to become competitive over the next five to 10 years.

The programmable economy, enabled by "smart" distributed computational resources, evolving from the blockchain and distributed ledgers, represents a massive transformation of global economic systems, industries and businesses. Business and IT leaders and policymakers must begin preparing now.

The Internet of Things is helping to blur the physical and digital world, as well as transform industries and the way we live and work. This Hype Cycle helps enterprises assess the building blocks and the levels of risk, maturity and hype associated with this transformative trend.

Wearable electronic devices are deployed for their potential to improve efficiency and lower net costs. IT leaders must differentiate among many types of wearables to determine the right opportunities for investment.